Peeking out in the other direction, an arm still over my head, I could see the snapping wretch I’d knocked over bite into smaller prey. Light exploded out the front and sides of her mouth. She staggered back, blood and trails of light streaming from her open maw.
Metal gauntlets dug into my back. Wood and bone broke, and I felt the light ripple out, retaliating.
It didn’t prevent the harm, it only punished it.
More blades sprung up. I was getting very close to the point where, if I had a clear path, I’d be hard pressed to outrun the steadily advancing eruption.
But the way forward was still obscured. Paige’s effect was steadily wearing down at the massed enemies. I could see the tie to the sphinx. Set a rule, with very clear, fair consequences.
Hurt others, get hurt in kind.
A very good rule to set up, when we were dealing with insensate monsters driven by pain and rage. Thinning the ranks.
Toward the light.
I forced myself to rise, to move. A wretch behind me struck at my back, and I took the blow, felt it scrape past wood to catch at flesh. I staggered, and my forward movement worked with the flare of retaliatory light to push my attacker away from me.
It was almost impossible to see where the light was originating. In front of me, a wretch tackled another, and was thrown off by a matching blast of light. I squinted, turning my head away.
I was moving in slow motion, trying not to be aggressive as I moved through them. I saw a gap appear and took two half-steps to place myself in it. Something struck me with a makeshift club, as if punishing me for trying to fill the gap, and the strike was hard enough to splinter wood. The weapon the wretch had used was shattered, the fragments tearing into her face and fingers.
A goblin with a bra for a hat pounced onto her face while she was distracted, and was summarily punished, thrown off by a bright flash.
I focused on moving forward.
The light was dying, but it was stronger toward the source, and I was moving in that direction. I pushed forward, and found far more wretches had fallen or backed away closer to the others. The group had formed a ring, using wards and makeshift shields to ward off attacks. Those that hit the shields were punished just as severely as if they’d hit the people protected by them.
Paige was at the center, standing on a fallen Other, light held high. Peter was behind her, using a length of wood to batter at the blades that blocked the door.
They parted to let me through. I glanced over to one side, and I saw the blades springing up, only a short distance away now. Fifteen paces. As they rose, they doubled the enemy ranks. The crowd surged toward us, and the light drove them back as they struck at the shields.
I knew, without a doubt, that the sheer numbers would win out over the light.
I did an inventory of everyone that was present. Ainsley was down, Lola hurt but helping, Peter and Paige were at the perimeter, Mags and a handful of her goblins were here, holding the line with the vestige kids, Evan was overhead, and Green Eyes-
Wasn’t here.
“Green Eyes!” I shouted.
Mags looked at me over her shoulder, found an opportunity to point.
I wished I could use Rose’s eyes to use the Sight, but that apparently wasn’t an option. Mags had to provide it.
As fast as I’d passed into the group, I passed out the other side, pushing my way forward. Head down, shoulders hunched, focusing on moving ahead.
For every three wretches, maybe one had fallen, in the wake of the retaliatory effect. There were gaps. I focused on them, and weathered the strikes that came my way.
I found her, on the ground and writhing to try and stay away from others. Where her tail touched flesh or scales hooked on clothing, the light spat at her, sparks that burned and made her smoke.
We’d had a plan, but with the sheer numbers arrayed against us, the plan had broken down. Now she was suffering further. She hurt others by touching them, and now she was being punished for causing that harm.
Stooping down, I reached past the crowd, extending a hand. She grabbed my wrist, and I pulled, prompting a small storm of light to wreath her as she slid past others. When she was close enough, I wrapped my arms around her, while she folded her own arms around my shoulders.
A scythe-like blade thrust out of the ground, two feet in front of us. It cut a wretch in two, and I could see the space between the two halves, the emptiness, void that went beyond simple vacuum. Tatters and shards of the wretch were swallowed up by that vast darkness.
Shadowstuff and environment gathered to fill in the missing parts, and the two resulting wretches staggered before catching their balance.
They clutched at me, and my efforts to pull away didn’t succeed in breaking their grip. They hung on, their weight joining Green Eyes in slowing me.
More blades came, not far away now, with masses of wretches fighting to get past what was a veritable forest of the things. Here and there, they were shoved into the blades another time, cut deep.
I was at the very edge of the crowd before the wall of shields when the light finally died.
They piled on me, striking, swatting, grabbing.
This time, it was Green Eyes who saved me. She crawled on me like I was a jungle gym, and she was an exceedingly violent kid who’d spent her whole life there, tail swinging, claws flashing, teeth biting. In the span of one step, I had what probably amounted to a full bucketful of blood pour down on me and Green Eyes.
We reached the defensive line, but it was different from before. Those who struck at the shields and goblins weren’t being bounced off, but were pushed in by the ones behind.
Green Eyes slid off me, slick with blood. I let her lie there, heading to Peter’s side. He’d done more damage than I might have expected to the blades that blocked the door, even though they were nearly an inch thick.
“Look out!” Lola screamed.
The blades emerged from the ground.
It was meant to be the drop of the guillotine, perhaps. Corner us, get us to the point where we had absolutely no elbow room to spare, then bring the blades out of the ground.
It was Ainsley, barely sensate, propped up just to Peter’s left at the door, who saved us.
Taking her candle in both hands, she snapped it in two. Her words were drowned out.
Time slowed, and we slowed with it. The blades were already rising as the effect took hold. Our momentum stayed constant, but our brains operated at a normal speed.
It was almost like a dance. Seeing the blades appear, moving as if we were swimming underwater, to get ourselves out of the way.
The goblins, vestiges, and Mags were the first in the line of fire. One goblin virtually leapfrogged over the goblin beside it, simultaneously shoving its partner into the way of the blade that he himself was dodging. The vestiges were already quick, already fast enough to dodge even before time was slowed.
Mags, for her part, twisted around, scarf coming unraveled, her eyes wide, as the blade that was poised to stab right between her legs passed within an inch of her jawline.
The blades were already spearing up to catch the group toward the center. Paige, Lola, Green Eyes. Paige was adroit enough, but Lola was hurt, too slow to move fully out of the way. She crossed her arms in front of her, still backing away, and the blade ran along the backs of her wrists. Mags, still moving, very nearly stumbled into that same blade.
Like the vestige kids, Green Eyes was fast enough she probably could have dodged without help. Her focus was more on me.
Only Peter, Ainsley, and I remained, with Evan being high enough up.
Like Lola, Ainsley was hurt. Peter dodged the blade meant for him easily enough, blocking the bulk of it with the block of wood he’d been using to hammer at the barricade.